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The Grammys didn’t create that “Best Asian Music” category this year to be diverse. They did it to continue boxing non English speaking artists but especially BTS, so they won’t have to nominate them in the main categories with the rest of their peers. This was the Grammys telling BTS they’ll give them a Grammy win but under their own boxed category. We give you the scraps and you are supposed to take them. They said no.

They’ve been doing this for years under the disguise of diversity. “Best Traditional Country Album” a new category introduced after Beyoncé won in the Best Country Album category because they couldn’t stand a non white artist redefining that genre. “Best African Music” being introduced in 2024 to keep Tyla away from other pop girls. And “Best Latin Song” being introduced for this year along with Best Asian Music after Bad Bunny right fully dominated all of the charts last year. And mind you, Brazilian artists cannot even submit their work for this category because the rules say it has to be 51% in Spanish, even when Brazilians speak Portuguese but are Latin people.

It was never about diversity. It’s about boxing and categorizing these artists when global music (or more like non English music) is becoming bigger each year and this is the only way they can keep their American/British peers safe in their space.

In BTS’ latest album ARIRANG, they have a song called Alien where they describe feeling alienated by the industry duo to their xenophobic behavior. Them creating this category when they released one of the biggest albums of the year is proving them right. At the end, this was the right choice.

Great of BTS for rejecting the Grammys full on and not play into their very tokenization game.

You have to understand that nature does not work in the same timeframe as ours. Protecting and restoring ecosystems is RIDICULOUSLY inexpensive and requires very little industrial technology; shovels and saplings are not exactly high-tech. But it takes time and long-term projects with people determined to do it. Maybe we are too focused in our "we want it now" thinking, but what you see today is not what you may see in 10, 20, 50, even 80 years if you live that long.

This article talks about this very much in the "see? ecology can help the economy too!" tone that unfortunately is sort of necessary to convince people in the current capitalist system. But I don't want you to focus on this right now.

I want you to KNOW how doable this is. How inexpensive this is, how POSSIBLE THIS IS. That people working and loving the land and nature they live in is possible. That these projects WORK, THEY DO restore and preserve ecosystems. That humanity is neither a plague that destroys everything or a passive bystander on its own destruction but that these are actual things that can be, are, and will be implemented, backed by actual science and results. This is not empty #hopecore #hopepunk feel good stuff, these are things you can learn about, even work towards, and you can most certainly demand they are part of our society.

This orange peel story was huge years ago: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/a-fruitful-experiment-in-land-conservation/

Beavers reintroduced to historic wetlands improve them at such a level that we can see the improvements from space: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/nasa-satellites-reveal-restoration-power-of-beavers/

Africa is successfully slowing desertification and restoring historic farming soil with their Green Wall project: https://welcomeafrica.org/en/africa-combats-desertification-with-a-belt-of-life/

There has even been success at regrowing coral reefs--something which I am old enough to be told was impossible. But people have been hard at work for decades since then, and this is one of the results: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240308123248.htm

REPAIRING THE DAMAGE IS ENTIRELY WITHIN THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY.

Rose-bellied Bunting (Passerina rositae), family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes, endemic to a small area of southern Mexico

photographs: Birdquest & Saad Towheed

Orange-breasted Bunting (Passerina leclancherii), family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes, endemic to Mexico

photograph by Greg Lavaty

Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), male, family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes

photograph by Robert S. Parker

Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), male, family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes, Eastern U.S.

photograph by David Morgan & Joseph Morlan 

Varied Bunting (Passerina versicolor), male, family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes, West TX, USA

photograph by David Hollie

Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena), male, family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes, Idaho, United States

All the episodes of Galavant are on the Internet Archive!

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.